


Taking and giving

by Pearlislove



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Character Study, Criticism, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 06:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9479744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: God take things, and god give thingsThe concept of give and take, losing something and gain something else, was familiar to Theseus, but it didn’t make him feel much better as he posed in front of the mirror, turning this way and that inspecting himself.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A character study of Theseus Scamander

_ God take things, and god give things _

 

The concept of give and take, losing something and gain something else, was familiar to Theseus, but it didn’t make him feel much better as he posed in front of the mirror, turning this way and that inspecting himself.

 

Or more like, comparing himself to his little brother. Nine years, was the age difference between them, so much and yet so little. 

 

There was the things, the features and personality traits that they both shared. They had red hair, and they had freckles, his brother a lot more than him though. But they were Scamanders, and all Scamanders had them. Just like all Scamanders were stubborn to the point of borderline stupidity.

 

His brother, though, had deep blue eyes like oceans and an adorable smile and soft face.

 

Theseus didn’t.

 

Theseus had grey, almost colorless eyes and sharp angles in his face that his brother lacked. Thoughtfully, he placed his fingers on his cheekbones, follow them with his fingers and taking note of the freckles that followed the same course. They were faded, but still there, spreading up towards his empty eyes and stopping somewhere around the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, that had only just started to appear but was all too easy to spot.

 

He smile. It looks sharp and dangerous like a predator and he doesn't like it at all. It makes him look like one of Newt’s beasts, not the man himself.

 

Theseus rarely smiled anymore, and not just because of  Newt.

 

His social eloquence was one of the few things that Theseus had that Newt didn’t, but most of them time he’d trade it for his brother's appearance without a second thought. After all, everyone just found his social incompetence a part of his charm, an odd little quirk that made people more empathic towards him. 

 

Theseus hands are touching the wrinkles by his eyes again, moving up and tracing the worry line between his eyes and last but not least tugging harshly at his short cut hair. It was ginger but already graying, long before his brother's ever would. He hated it.

 

True Scamander hair was slow to become gray, but years of barely dodging curses and jinxes and having them flying through his hair instead of his body had worn it out and it couldn't hold onto its colour as long as it should. 

 

From the outside, people would regard Theseus as the perfect brother. The careerist and the success, the one to carry on the family pride. 

 

Personally, Theseus knew that Newton was the perfect brother, and not him. He was appalling and Newt was appealing, but people didn't know to make the difference until they’d met them both. 

 

All of this annoyed Theseus. It annoyed him and annoyed him and annoyed him until it felt like it would drive him crazy and he janked harder at his hair because he hate it and he need to feel the pain pulsing through his skull or else he was surely going to scream out of pure frustration for everything he was and wasn’t.

 

“Coooo, cooo!” 

 

A bird, bigger than an eagle and looking like someone threw up rainbow coloured goo all over an exceptionally big owl, has landed on his window seal. The bird is cooing insistently, trying to catch his attention, and Theseus can’t help but swear shamelessly as he sees it, because he recognise it. Oh, he recognise it alright. It’s his brother’s asian butterfly owl that he used to send mail by. Ironically enough, Newt had decided to name this specimen Theseus as a tribute to his brother on Theseus’ last birthday.

 

He doesn’t want to read a letter from his brother at the moment, though. He doesn’t want to think of or see anything that lead him to thinking about his oh so perfect and charming and cute brother, and yet he’s walking towards the windowsill, the bird no quite as it watched him curiously.

 

Sighing and tugging at his hair once more, he finally gather the energy to bend down and remove the letter from the bird’s leg, watching it fly out the window without waiting for his reply as soon as it was free. He guessed his brother didn’t want him to reply, then.

 

The paper the bird carried is tiny, not even big enough to be a proper letter, just a folded note. Somehow this just served to make him even more frustrated though he didn’t know why and he feels like throwing it out the window but he doesn’t.

 

Instead, he just sigh like he always does and unfold the note, reading it.

 

_ You are a great brother and I love you _

 

He stares at the text, reading the single line written on it over and over again as though he couldn’t even believe it to be true.

 

He almost couldn’t.

 

It was as though his brother had been able to read his mind from wherever in the world that he happened to be and knew how Theseus was feeling, knew how much he hated and criticized himself and wrote together a message to help him feel better. 

 

Now he almost felt guilty for tugging at his hair until it hurt and swearing before retrieving the letter, feeling as though he’d soiled the pure and loving message by performing the simple acts of self-hate and borderline self-harm beforehand.

 

Yet, at the same time he felt so happy and full of love. His brother was the most important person in his life, and as much as he was jealous of his looks and hated himself for not looking like that every time they met, it was still some of the best moments in his life. To know that his brother loved and appreciated him meant so much that he couldn’t help but smile at the mere thought, hugging the little note to his chest.

 

Unbeknown to Theseus, outside the window of his bottom floor apartment, a freckled, ginger haired man was watching the man inside the apartment, smiling as he smiled too and feeling happy that his brother finally felt a little better about himself.

  
  
  
  



End file.
